Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Nearly 1M People Have Signed Up For Obamacare Coverage Since February
Modern Healthcare: HealthCare.Gov Sign-Ups Spike During Special Enrollment
Nearly one million people have signed up for insurance through HealthCare.gov and premiums have fallen for many enrollees during the current special enrollment period, according to HHS on Thursday. The 940,000 new enrollees on HealthCare.gov from February 15 through April 30 represents an approximately 549,000 enrollee increase from the same period in 2020. HHS credited the American Rescue Plan for creating a special enrollment period. Those figures represent 36 states using the federal healthcare exchange platform. (Gellman, 5/6)
Axios: Biden Administration Announces 940,000 ACA Sign-Ups So Far This Year
About 940,000 people have signed up for health insurance through the Affordable Care Act since February, the Biden administration announced Thursday. There was a surge in sign-ups of about 470,000 people in the month of April alone. New subsidies and stimulus began April 1. (Fernandez, 5/6)
CNN: Almost A Million People Signed Up For Obamacare Coverage Through April After Biden Reopened Exchanges
Almost a million people signed up for 2021 health insurance coverage on the federal Affordable Care Act exchange during the first 10 weeks of President Joe Biden's special enrollment period, according to data released Thursday from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. That's well over double the number who turned to the exchange in the same period over the past two years, when enrollment was limited to those losing job-based policies and experiencing other major life events, such as divorce. (Luhby, 5/6)
Axios: Enrollment Surge May Help Democrats' Push For ACA Changes
Democrats’ big investments in the Affordable Care Act appear to be paying off. Almost 1 million Americans have signed up for ACA coverage since February, roughly half of them in April alone, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services said yesterday. The strong enrollment numbers could help Democrats make the case that some of their changes to the ACA should become permanent. (Fernandez, 5/7)
MSNBC: Biden's ACA Special Enrollment Period Continues To Pay Off
Last spring, as the coronavirus crisis first started to intensify, the Trump administration considered creating a special open-enrollment period through the Affordable Care Act. As regular readers know, this was generally seen as a no-brainer, but the Republican White House balked anyway, to the surprise of nearly everyone involved in the process. As Politico reported at the time, the decision appeared to be largely political: Team Trump didn't want to turn to "Obamacare" to help people in a crisis. That was then; this is now. (Benen, 5/6)
